3 Great Microsoft Software Solutions to Boost your Efficiency when Working from Home

With COVID-19, staying productive from the “home office” has become critical. Employees have had to quickly find solutions to distanced communication, file sharing, remote collaborative project work, and cloud storage transfer, without relying on local servers or software. In the years to come, many businesses may continue using the distanced working schemes they've come up with to cope with lockdown and limited staff - many companies have discovered remote working saves time, money, and hassle, with no adverse effect on productivity.

Microsoft has developed a great range of productivity-enhancing apps, services, and online platforms to help us all navigate this 'new normal'. Here are our top three choices from Microsoft's 2020 selection for improving your and your employees’ home working abilities.

1) Microsoft 365 (M365) with Office 365

Microsoft 365 is Microsoft's premier all-in-one, cloud-based office and telecoms suite. It's available in tiered levels offered for a monthly fee, including a premium tier that offers advanced remote support and security options to users.

Microsoft 365 includes a comprehensive, mixed selection of downloadable apps (including Excel, Word, Access, Publisher and PowerPoint), remote web email, VoIP phone access, online versions of vital Office Apps (such as Word), and 1TB of OneDrive sharable file storage per user.

Microsoft 365 also prides itself on its 'available anywhere' login. One subscription is scalable and compatible across a range of different devices running diverse OS builds. Cloud compatibility also makes file backup and recovery easy, eliminating the risks of human error and relying on one local HDD copy.

If you or your employees use a lot of different machines, travel around to distant places and sites, or rely on (distanced) hot desking, a Microsoft 365 subscription could be a better investment than paying for traditional, 'static' installations of Office.

2) Microsoft Teams

Microsoft Teams is Microsoft's business-focused video call, chat, and collaborative working app. It contains core features such as calendar and schedule integration and push notifications that make it both work-friendly and ideal for coordinating large groups.

Available for Windows 10, Apple OSX/iOS, Android and simply as a Web App, its sheer portability and excellent compatibility with current mobile devices makes it an ideal choice to get remote conferences up-and-running quickly and effectively. The 'drop-in' nature of conference calls and dialogues also makes it a robust, flexible alternative to scheduled, hosted chat apps such as Zoom. It's also fully compatible with Skype for Business, making cloud integration for VoIP and video calls easy.
Microsoft are heavily investing in Teams with new features being rolled out every month. Whether that be a fancy new artificial background for your meeting, or additional security and compliance configuration options, Teams has established itself as the de-facto communication and collaboration software for business and education.

3) SharePoint

SharePoint is Microsoft's web-based intranet and document-management solution. Available since 2001, it's now fully embedded within Microsoft 365. Amongst its many features, SharePoint allows you to create and collaborate on Office files, build internal websites for sharing content, news and knowledge, and manage data and notifications in Lists. It's fully searchable, too, allowing you to bring up user profiles and information you need instantly.

Cloud App IT Support from Fuse Collaboration

Do you need support for any Microsoft software while your team are working at a distance? Fuse Collaboration can help. We offer remote installation, integration, and user IT support for Office 365, MS 365, Azure, and SharePoint. Call or email us today to find out more.

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